Photo/Illutration This popular restaurant in Nagoya posts a sign at its entrance that says, "We have reached our limit, but we will not give up." (Masaki Yamamoto)

Japan will not lift the state of emergency for the novel coronavirus pandemic this week because the medical care situation remains tight in many prefectures, several government and ruling coalition sources said.

Government officials had indicated that the state of emergency could be lifted before the March 7 deadline if new infection numbers fell and the medical care situation improved.

Although the number of new infections has decreased, hospitals are still struggling to care for COVID-19 patients and secure beds for them.

“The hospital bed situation remains very tight, and no prefectural governor has strongly called for a lifting of the state of emergency,” a high-ranking official in the prime minister’s office said.

The state of emergency for 11 prefectures was initially scheduled to end on Feb. 7, but it was extended for another month for 10 of those prefectures.

The revised special measures law to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic is set to go into effect on Feb. 13, and government officials initially considered lifting the state of emergency for some prefectures around that date.

The revised law contains provisions for concentrated measures to be taken even after the state of emergency has been lifted in a prefecture, such as requesting bars and restaurants to reduce their business hours.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met with the relevant Cabinet ministers and ruling coalition lawmakers on Feb. 10 to discuss what course to take.

“The hospital bed situation is still very serious in many prefectures,” Suga said. “There should be a thorough implementing of the measures now in place concerning eateries to further reduce new infections and lead to a reduction in the number of hospitalized patients and those with serious symptoms.”

The government plans to hold a meeting of its advisory panel and task force dealing with the pandemic on Feb. 12 to discuss the basic government direction in line with the changes in the revised special measures law.

One possible agenda item for that meeting was whether to lift the state of emergency for Aichi and Gifu prefectures in central Japan and have those two prefectures implement the concentrated measures to hold down new infections.

But the hospital bed usage ratio in Aichi Prefecture as of Feb. 9 was 51 percent, slightly above the 50-percent benchmark the government is using to classify a region as being in the most serious stage 4 in terms of the spreading of infections.

Because Gifu borders Aichi and the two prefectures are closely linked in terms of economic and other activities, government officials were hesitant about lifting the state of emergency for just one of the two prefectures.

At a Feb. 9 news conference, Shigeru Omi, chairman of the government panel of experts, indicated he was placing greater emphasis on the burden on the medical care structure rather than the number of new COVID-19 cases in deciding whether to lift the state of emergency.

Other high-ranking government officials also raised concerns about a possible rebound in new infections if the state of emergency is lifted before the deadline.

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